


The Traveller

by MagiQueen



Series: Time Lord Tony [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alien Maria Stark, BAMF Tony Stark, Chameleon Arch (Doctor Who), Doctor Who References, Fobwatched Time Lord, Iron Man 1, Maria Stark's Good Parenting, Time Lord Tony Stark, Time Lords and Ladies (Doctor Who), Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27736282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagiQueen/pseuds/MagiQueen
Summary: Tony Stark has a mysterious pocket watch. Set during Iron Man 1
Series: Time Lord Tony [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028868
Comments: 1
Kudos: 67





	The Traveller

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really fascinated by all the X-character is a Time Lord fic. So here's one with Tony Stark.

He was 4 years old when he knew the truth. A broken circuit board lay beside him as his mother told him a wonderful story. A story about a stubborn queen and a mysterious traveller who helped each other in the most wonderful way. A queen who just wanted to escape from her troubles, and a man who was so alone and lost. He listened fascinated, tears already drying in his face, as she told him about their adventures, all the places they’d gone, all the wonderful people they’d met, all the trouble they’d found themselves in and got out of. As he slept that night, his tiny hands clutching a broken, old pocket watch, he dreamt of all the wonders of the universe. 

Years later, in a cave in Afghanistan, Tony found himself revisiting those stories. The man, the mysterious traveller, the one who would deal with any dangerous situation with a smile in his face, a witty retort and head brimming with ideas and plans. He wondered what the man would’ve done in his situation, something brilliant no doubt. He shook his head and went back to working, his mind already working out the myriad of ways this plan of his could go wrong. 

And it did go wrong, he mused later. He could have saved Yinsen, had he been a bit faster, a bit smarter. He should have saved Yinsen. Tears were freely flowing as he walked across the scorching hot desert, his head filled with regrets, should-have-beens. Despite succeeding in getting out of captivity, he felt like a failure. The Traveller would have saved Yinsen, he would have done everything so much better than Tony had done. In some deepest corners of his mind, he knew that perhaps that wasn’t true, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it. The Traveller had been a wonderful person, a standard to aspire to, a story that got him through so much, and he wanted to hold onto it. As he heard the sounds of a helicopter approaching, he pushed those thoughts away, a smile taking over his face as he recognized his friend.

  
His chest hurt with every breath he took, but he ignored it, instead focusing on the now. His weapons, his designs were being used to hurt people. American soldiers were being killed by his weapons. It was a disaster, it would be an even bigger disaster if he didn’t do something about it. He wondered how long this had been going on, his hands stained with the blood of people he should’ve protected. No more, he thought, he will not let this continue, he will fix it, even if it's the last thing he does. 

He set out to work on the suit. Something that helped him escape the hellhole he found himself in and something that will help him fix his mistakes. His weapons were still out there, they were being used to torture and kill people and he couldn't just sit idly by while that happened. He had to do something about it. He had to take responsibility and destroy all those that set out to harm.

His mother was a wonderful artist, her works depicting something so otherworldly and fascinating. His favorite piece was a glittering futuristic city, full of overarching towers and curved ridges. Two suns provided the cityscape with glittering light, creating light and shadows in an interesting way. He found himself missing it, as he fiddled in his lab. That piece was something that brought up such melancholy and joy in him. Howard had praised her imagination once, assuming it was brought up by his futuristic designs but Tony knew better. She had confessed to him that it was described by a friend, a place with so much potential and so much knowledge, tinged with so much sorrow and so much happiness. He had startled at that, his thoughts voiced in such a way by his mother.

Ever since his mother gave him that pocket watch, he had treasured it, carried it always with him. He had thought of the thing as his lucky charm, and regretted not carrying it with him in that ill-fated trip. Would it have prevented his captivity? Or would it have been lost alongside everything had he done so? He didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to lose it even more so. It was one of the last remaining things he had of his mother, he didn’t want it gone. As he looked into it, the circles and lines speaking a language of its own, a language that felt familiar and alien at the same time. He briefly wondered if he should open it, there was something inside the watch. There was a feeling, a constantly thrumming energy coming from underneath that made him want to know more, that made his thirst for knowledge even greater. He shook his head and placed it inside his pocket. 

He was dying, betrayed by someone he trusted more than anyone else, someone he thought of as family. He slumped even more, fight leaving his body. JARVIS was gone, disabled, he thought bitterly. He couldn’t even save him, the one being he was the most responsible for, he couldn’t even save his creation, how could he save himself or anyone else. He found himself hating himself even more as he clutched the pocket watch hard. He clicked it open just as DUM-E placed the arc reactor within him. 

Memories of a life gone, a life well lived shone from it, energy constantly thrumming from it. He screamed as it all came rushing back, countless years of running and melancholy, the loneliness creeping in slowly. He looked down in horror. He knew what was going to happen, regeneration energy slowly creeping towards his body, going to alter his biology. NO, he thought and clamped it down, shutting the fob watch as he did so. He still had the arc reactor inside him, he still had Obie out there with a powerful suit and an energy source capable of doing so much destruction. He couldn’t let that get away, everything else, everything else could wait. 

He was running on pure adrenaline as he fought, everything focused on destroying the Iron Monger and fixing what his trust caused. He was focused on not letting his faults cause any more destruction so he didn’t spare any moment to think about any of this. He shoved it deep down as he was wont to do and fought, fought for himself, fought for the last vestiges of Tony Stark. 

When it was all and done, he had no excuse but to confront his reality. The Traveller, he thought bitterly, a name imbued with loneliness, an identity that was just that, a traveller unable to return home. Maria had saved him more than he had saved her in that regard. First as a friend and then again as a mother. He had already accepted that he wouldn’t get to return home, to Gallifrey, he had accepted that a long time ago. He knew the risks of dimension travel, he knew there was a chance he couldn’t return back yet he still missed the glittering city. 

He sighed as he turned the fob watch around. He was still human, only if barely. He looked on at the SHIELD agents helping with the cleanup and wondered what would happen if they knew the truth. Would they lock him up? Would they force him to work for them? After all, he would be a highly useful asset. If he wasn’t wary about them as Tony Stark, he was now considering what he knew about them. 

Tony Stark, his new identity, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry about it. He’d known the name, but hadn’t made the connection till now. Iron Man, Tony Stark, a hero, a man so deeply involved in this universe, someone history still talked about centuries later. He now understood the Time Lord policy of non-interference more than he ever had. He was used to observing history, used to observing the brilliance of all the other races of the galaxy, of the threads of time pulsing and vibrating showcasing so much potential, so much possibilities. He wasn’t used to living it however. He wasn’t used to being right in the middle of the web of time, traversing it, changing things, creating and destroying within it.

He was used to being The Traveller, going to wonderful, exotic places, meeting and fixing broken people. His life was a journey with disastrous beginnings, chaotic middles and wonderful yet bittersweet ends. He went from trouble to trouble, he visited so many planets and so many worlds, all the while knowing that the one he wanted was unavailable to him. Gallifrey, he thought bitterly, was lost to him forever. He shoved his loneliness and hurt down deep and continued on. 

But he didn’t even have that luxury anymore. He was a part of this timeline whether he liked it or not and he had to live it, he had to be Tony Stark. He looked down at his chest, the light of the arc reactor shining brightly through the hole in his chest. His transformation was incomplete, he was still human and yet not. It would probably only last until his death if he didn’t do anything about it. But what could he even do? SHIELD was watching him because he was Tony Stark, it wouldn’t do for them to find anything else that was different about him. The spike of energy from his house earlier would be ignored, he knew, it would be lost in the myriad of other things that happened with him recently. But not if it happened again, Twice was a really strange coincidence, especially if it concerned him. 

As he looked at the alibi the SHIELD Agent had provided him, he considered the ramification of that one simple act. A secret identity, Iron Man’s secret known only to an organization shrouded in secrets. He would be beholden to them, he would depend on them and who knows what they would ask of him in return, what he would have to do to keep the Iron Man’s identity a secret. He would be much closer to them than he was comfortable with, it would be a pain keeping his exact nature a secret. Mind made up, he held his head high and walked into the room. “ _I am Iron Man._ ”

First things first, he had to locate his TARDIS, he had a fair amount of idea where it was and he was certain it wouldn’t take long. It was shielded really well so he wouldn’t have to worry about secret organizations finding out about it or getting its energy readings either. The hard bit came after it was located, all of time and space at his fingertips and so much to do. Tiny tiny changes he could make without disturbing the timeline. Small things that hopefully would lead to some bigger changes. SHIELD was by its nature really shifty and he needed information, he needed accurate information. 

He had time and though he was not very patient, he would have to be if he wanted to come out of this on top. It would be slow going but if he played his cards right and if some of the rumors he’d heard turned out to be true, it would be okay. All he had to do was hack into SHIELD and get those crucial bits of information before making some plans and backup upon backup of those. 

The lights were out in his house, he realized with some trepidation as he walked closer, and there was someone there. “JARVIS?” He called, furious that he had been hurt so many times in the past few days. He walked inside, not knowing what to expect, who to expect. His suit was still pitifully simple, Mark II, he had some ideas on how to improve it, how to prepare for a situation just like this but he hadn’t quite implemented it. Armed only with vague remembrance of fighting techniques from Earth as well as from all over the universe, he walked in. 

He needn’t have worried, he realized once he saw who was there. Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. He had expected them to come knocking after that press conference but he hadn’t expected it this soon, nor had he expected the head honcho himself to pay him a house visit. That alone told him so much, that alone was evidence of how important he was to them. He could deal with this. After all, he couldn’t very well hide in the shadows, why not hide in the spotlight, behind a showman’s smile and witty retorts. 

**Author's Note:**

> I want The Traveller to be just a Time Lord, who found himself in a parallel universe and is unable to return home. Do want to include some Doctor Who characters tho.


End file.
